Peter Fornaro

An Interdisciplinary Virtual Laboratory on Nanoscience

The Swiss Virtual Campus project ”Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory” realises a virtual laboratory for the booming field of Nanoscience. Nanoscience laboratories are expensive and only major companies and organizations sponsored by research programmes can aord their usage. With a concept of distance education, complex and sensible experimental equipment can be shared through the Internet. Three main topics are realized in the framework of a virtual laboratory: user management, communication and co-operation, and the control of virtual experiments. The basic architecture is based on a multitiered client-server model. Each nanoscience experiment is implemented as a stand-alone web-service.

Problem-Based Learning Using Mobile Devices

Small handheld devices such as PDAs and smart phones become more and more popular. Thus, we are seeing a growing number of projects using mobile devices for educational purposes. Due to the limitations of screen size, CPU performance, and memory size, software development for mobile devices is challenging. More critical argument is about the lack of pedagogic and didactic concepts on the usage of mobile devices in education. In this paper, we present a system using mobile devices which supports research experiences for students in a laboratory context. The system allows students to efficiently monitor and control their scientific experiments at anytime, from anywhere. We describe several usage scenarios in the area of nanoscience studies, where the remote control of microscopes is mandatory. We present our system architecture and describe the implementation based on open-source software.

Automated digital camera sensor characterization

The color characterization of professional imaging devices typically involves the capture of a reference color target under the scene-specific lighting conditions and the use of dedicated profiling software. However, the limited set of color patches on the target may not adequately represent the reflection spectra found in the scene. We present a solution developed in collaboration with a camera manufacturer for the automatic color characterization of the sensors without the need of a physical color target. The optimal color transforms are computed based on the individually measured sensor spectral sensitivities, computer generated sets of color spectra forming a virtual characterization target and a mathematical model of the camera. The use of a virtual target enables the optimization of the color transform for specific image capturing situations by selective generation of the reflection spectra.

PEVIAR: Digital originals

Even decades after the advent of computer technology, preserving information in digital archives remains a challenging task. Technological progress on all levels calls for migration as an essential component of any digital archive. Migration, however, is not only expensive, but also makes it difficult to ensure the authenticity of digital documents. The University of Basels Imaging and Media Lab has developed PEVIAR (Permanent Visual Archive), an archiving solution addressing one of the fundamental challenges of digital archiving, migration, and introducing the notion of digital originals. Essentially, digital documents are inseparably bound to a migration-free medium, thereby overcoming the transient nature of todays state-of-the-art storage systems.

DASCH: Data and Service Center for the Humanities

Research data in the humanities needs to be sustainable, and access to digital resources must be possible over a long period. Only if these prerequisites are fulfilled can research data be used as a source for other projects. In addition, reliability is a fundamental requirement so that digital sources can be cited, reused, and quoted. To address this problem, we present our solution: the Data and Service Center for the Humanities located in Switzerland. The centralized infrastructure is based on flexible and extendable software that is in turn reliant on modern technologies. Such an approach allows for the straightforward migration of existing research project databases with limited life spans in the humanities. We will demonstrate the basic concepts behind this proposed solution and our first experiences in the application thereof.

Collaborative Nanoscience Laboratory with Integrated Learning Modules

Creation and maintenance of virtual laboratories needs an interdisciplinary project team with didactic and technical staff and also experts of the field. NANO-WORLD, a collaborative nanoscience laboratory, developed as part of the Swiss Virtual Campus, is built on top of an e-learning portal. Interactive real-time simulations of nanoscience experiments inspire students to access e-learning modules. Remote experiments with mobile notification services increase the learning motivation of students. They can directly explore phenomena in nanoscience and take over the role of scientists.

Digital images for eternity : color microfilm as archival medium

In the archiving and museum communities, the long-term preservation of artworks has traditionally been guaranteed by making duplicates of the original. For photographic reproductions, digital imaging devices have now become standard, providing better quality control and lower costs than film photography. However, due to the very short life cycle of digital data, losses are unavoidable without repetitive data migrations to new file formats and storage media. We present a solution for the long-term archiving of digital images on color microfilm (Ilfochrome® Micrographic). This extremely stable and high-resolution medium, combined with the use of a novel laser film recorder is particularly well suited for this task. Due to intrinsic limitations of the film, colorimetric reproductions of the originals are not always achievable. The microfilm must be first considered as an information carrier and not primarily as an imaging medium. Color transformations taking into account the film characteristics and possible degradations of the medium due to aging are investigated. An approach making use of readily available color management tools is presented which assures the recovery of the original colors after re-digitization. An extension of this project considering the direct recording of digital information as color bit-code on the film is also introduced.

Digital slide reproduction using densitometry

Many contemporary art collections contain important art installations where artists have used 35 mm slides as the primary medium. The number of ours these works are on show makes it necessary to regularly change the slides due to light fading. With funding from the Henry Moore Foundation. The conservation department at Tate initiated a project to examine ways in which digital technology could be used to aid the conservation of these works. The aim of the project was to place the original slides in cold storage and explored the possibility of using digital technology to make duplicate sets for display in the gallery. The reproductions needed to be of very high quality both in terms of resolution and color management. This paper discusses the use of densitometry to calibrate both device dependent and device independent systems for digitally reproducing 35 mm slides using a scanner and a film recorder and the effect of metamery when using slide films which employ different dyes.